Rad Maxx: Slot Overview
It might sound like a ‘cool’ name a pubescent wannabe Chad called themselves in the 1980s, but Rad Maxx is actually the title of a neon green and mostly monochrome online slot made by software provider Hacksaw Gaming. It sees Maxx and Ro$$ from Hacksaw’s 2023 success release RIP City hit the streets once again, and the quarrelsome duo has left the expanding wild symbols behind in favour of an intriguing pay in any or all orthogonal directions. So if you consider it ‘Time to f*nk things up’, then let’s let the age-old cat and mouse rivalry play out on the reels in Rad Maxx.
Like a printer running low on ink, there aren’t a lot of colours to feast your eyes on in Rad Maxx. That’s no bad thing, though, since not only has Hacksaw Gaming used this sort of look in the past, but it’s actually rather good with the monochrome/minimal colour aesthetic – Slayers INC, Chaos Crew 2, SixSixSix, etcetera. However, Rad Maxx’s closest relative is, of course, RIP City, and as well as a shared appearance, the game sees both Ro$$ and Maxx return to the screen. Ro$$ is the feline fellow, Maxx is the Mouse, and despite visual links, the two games operate very differently as they attempt to create excitement via an alternative set of rules. The music is a wee riot, too.
Rad Maxx might be played on a regular 5×5 gaming grid, but the way it potentially evaluates winning combinations is less conventional. As well as paying left to right, it can pay right to left, up to down, and down to up – depending on which payways are indicated by the 4 arrows next to the grid. More on this later. As well as being omnidirectional, Rad Maxx is a medium-high (4 out of 5 rated) volatile slot, with an RTP of 96.32% when wagering 10 c to $/€100 per spin. Lower return models are available, and the RTP can change when buying features.
A bunch of grey 10 through Ace card ranks are Rad Maxx’s low pays, while an apple core, a pizza slice, fish bones, and a mouse are the high pays. Royal 5 OAK wins pay 2 times the bet, or players collect 5 to 10 times their bet when 5 identical high pays create a win. All wild types substitute all regular paying symbols and are worth 10x for a line of 5.
Rad Maxx: Slot Features
Hope you don’t get motion sickness because Rad Maxx is a game that is able to pay in all 4 cardinal directions rather than just left to right on account of its Pay Direction Arrows and Wild Plus symbols. It also has multiplying Cat symbols, a trio of bonus rounds, and bonus buys.
Crazy Cat Symbols
Crazy Cat symbols are wild multipliers carrying values of x2 to x20 that multiply the value of wins they are part of. If more than one Crazy Cat symbol is part of the same win, the values are first multiplied with each other before being applied.
Pay Direction Arrows and Wild Plus Symbols
4 Pay Direction Arrows are displayed outside the grid. Arrows indicate the direction that winning paylines are calculated. The left Pay Direction Arrow is standard and is always active. The other arrows are activated by landing a Wild Plus symbol, which triggers before any wins are awarded, activating 1 to 3 additional payline directions. Pay Direction Arrows reset when the next spin begins.
Mad Maxx Bonus Game
Landing 3 FS scatters in the base game activates this feature with 10 free spins. It has the same mechanics as the base game but an increased chance of landing Wild Plus symbols. In addition, Crazy Cat symbols that land stick to the grid till the bonus ends. In all bonus versions, players win +2 or +4 free spins by landing 2 or 3 FS scatters, respectively.
Maxximice Bonus Game
Landing 4 FS scatters in the base game activates this bonus round with 10 free spins. Maxximice is the same as Mad Maxx with the added benefit that a Wild Plus symbol is guaranteed on each spin.
To The Maxx Bonus Game
Landing 5 FS scatters in the base game activates To The Maxx with 10 free spins. The features of Mad Maxx are retained, plus all Pay Direction Arrows are active throughout the entire bonus.
Bonus Buys
Players are able to engage BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 3x per spin to make it 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. Feline Frenzy FeatureSpins cost 50x the bet and guarantee at least 1 Wild Plus symbol and 3 Crazy Cat symbols land. The lower 2 bonus rounds may be bought as well – Mad Maxx for 100x or Maxximice for 200x.
Rad Maxx: Slot Verdict
Like a Berlin fetish club, Rad Maxx is a slot which swings in all sorts of unconventional directions as it’s not content with paying just one way. It might be argued that Hacksaw Gaming has hinted at this idea in the past via the RotoGrid feature of Strength of Hercules and Twisted Lab. Obviously, a rotating grid isn’t the same as a static grid, which can pay north, south, east, and west, but it could be argued those slots planted the seed that blossomed into Rad Maxx. This is also a very different game to RIP City, though one thing it shares is multiplying wild symbols, which are handy not only in and of themselves but the way Crazy Cats multiply each other when landing more than 1 of them in a winning combination is a plus.
As is usually the case, bonus rounds get better the more scatters land to trigger them, and guaranteed Wild Plus symbols provide the extra sweetener for making it into or buying the Maxximice bonus. So good, potentially, is To The Maxx that it can’t be bought from the bonus buy menu (in a similar vein to Le Bandit or Reign of Rome) on account of it paying in all directions at all times. Mentally sprinkling a few sticky Crazy Cat wild multipliers on the board when it’s paying every which way is admittedly quite a thought. Presumably, To The Maxx would be the optimal situation to be in for hitting the game’s 12,500x the bet win cap, but doing so is technically possible in any game mode. One thing to be aware of is getting more than 2 pay directions seemed to be a challenge during the review, and gaining traction in the entry-level bonus round could be tough, too.
No matter, from whichever direction you choose to view the game, Rad Maxx is a clever Hacksaw Gaming release. It’s got charismatic characters, an absorbing minimalist setting, and a set of features that are unique enough to warrant putting the game through its paces to see what’s up.
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